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Irene - Interview 41  

Irene - Interview 41

Age at Interview: 68
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 49
Background: Retired teacher; married with two adult children. In 1994 she joined a new exercise project for osteoporotic patients run by a local hospital in her city. She exercises three times a week.

Brief outline:Diagnosed in 1989 at the age of 49 and put on HRT and sandocal. In March 1990 diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent lumpectomy and radiotherapy; HRT discontinued. First DXA scan in 1998. Now on alendronic acid and Adcal D3. Improvement in bone density and now she has osteopenia rather than osteoporosis.

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Irene said that the exercise programme was like a ‘drug trial’ study. The physiotherapist compared between patients taking part in the exercise sessions and those who didn’t (the placebo).

 



In between times they were starting an exercise programme in another local hospital in the area. And it’s a, it was a young physiotherapist who was doing it as part of her studies and was accepted as the thing. And I was very fortunate to be taken on as part of the exercising group of the, the whole thing. Because the same as testing a drug and a placebo and the drug. The placebo in this case were the people that didn’t exercise and the people, the other people that got the drug were those who exercised. And the, we were measured at the start of our twelve weeks’ stint and measured at the end of the twelve weeks, of this time, as were the control group. Now those of us that had exercised had made some improvement, whether it was a bit more, a bit more brisk, a bit more confident maybe in some cases or we could stand up a bit easier or we could stretch even one centimetre more. And that’s really more or less what happened with the exercise thing. And at the end of the twelve weeks everyone became part of the exercises. Now it’s become part of the, our crowning glory in this area are the, is our exercise sessions.

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